


don't correct me if i'm wrong

by leothequeenn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Clyson?, F/M, Secret Admirer, TYSON IS HARD AF TO WRITE, all i know is that i watched sea of monsters, and this happened so its kinda based off the movie, bad idea but whatever, but like, in a high school au, so basically this is like based off of the movie, what tf would you call this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 02:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4287915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So you're thinking they're not real because they like you?" Silena asked. Clarisse paused for a moment, because had she really just admitted that? Did she want people to like her? No, no, of course not. This was crazy.<br/>But there was nothing from stopping her mouth from continuing on rambling out, "well yeah, not many people like me. So why should a secret admirer like me?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	don't correct me if i'm wrong

**Author's Note:**

> 6k words of what tf am i doing  
> -  
> If you can spot my lil otp snuggled up in there who Silena is currently trying to "hook up" you get like 10 brownie points. i made it kinda obvious tho.  
> -  
> also silena is cute af

Clarisse had a lot of admirers. She had always known that. They just were never ones that liked her for her, since she never cared about that kind of shit, and because, well, they were kind of shit too.

Those kinds of admirers she got were just ones that were proud of her body, since _hello_ , she was technically the only girl at her high school who joined (and made) the wrestling team and could beat the shit out of her teammates. Those kinds of admirers were just the kids on her team that were _jealous_ , as her friend Silena had told her multiple times while they sat together at the beauty girl’s house one night while Clarisse was complaining. Though, now that Clarisse thought about it, some of the comments were completely lewd and a clear reminder of why she didn’t date boys at her school. Or anywhere.

But, those admirers never left a gift next to a note taped to her locker. Never ever. Never, ever, ever because those admirers she had never did that. Those high school boys wouldn’t know romance if it hit them in the face (which Clarisse would like to do, _without_ the romance, please) and they especially wouldn’t know how to get flowers -- water lilies, to be more precise -- and put them together in a loosely made bouquet and tape them to her bright red locker. Nope. Nuh-uh. Never.

“Where did you get those?” Silena’s sudden high pitched voice interrupted Clarisse’s clear disgust and the smaller girl grabbed the note from beside the flowers, opening it up. “All it says is ‘I think you’re really pretty like these giant water lilies’. Aw! That’s so cute. The flowers look fresh too, aw.” It was clear to the older girl that her friend was swooning, and it was another wake up call to why she never dated anyone. Clearly, this was too cliché to be real. Was she dreaming? She hoped so. This was so embarrassing -- not romantic or cute or anything Silena had said it was.

Clarisse rolled her eyes. “Seems like the boys of the wrestling team took up some lessons from cliché-ways-to-try-and-flatter-a-chick.com.” Her hand snatched up the note from Silena, and the black-haired girl grabbed the flowers, smelling them. “Keep them. I don't want them.” Clarisse noted off to the side as she studied the note. The words were scrawled on there like the person wrote the first thing that came to their mind, and it was written like the fucking person was a half-blind four year old or something equally messy. It was smudged a little from it being written in pencil, but she was still able to make out the words and Silena was right. All it said was _I think you’re really pretty like these giant water lilies_. Clarisse scoffed. _How lame._

“Oh come on, I think it’s adorable. I don't mean to be rude but... Don’t be a hard-ass, Clarisse.” Silena smiled sweetly at her taller friend, placing a hand on her shoulder as best as she could. “It's better than those comments you get from the wrestling team. Also, you need to stop working out. I think it’s making you grow taller and taller each day.”

“Don’t be stupid, you’re just short.” Clarisse muttered to get her mind off of the stupid note. It was a waste of space in her now opened locker, and she instead placed it under her geometry book, hiding it forever. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Right.

The girl ignored her friend’s squeal of, “Five foot six isn’t short!” and she continued putting her books into her locker with a sigh. Who the fuck left flowers -- stupid water lilies, nonetheless -- taped to her locker with a stupid, messy note? Especially for a girl who, as Silena said, was a fucking hardass. _That person thinks I’m pretty?_ She thought with a scowl. _Yeah right. If this is a prank, they're gonna be dead_ \-- “What are you thinking about now?” Silena continued, pausing her rant of how five foot ten is giant but this Taylor Swift was also five foot ten so that was okay (Clarisse didn’t really know or care what she was going on about) to pull her friend back to Earth. _Weird_. “Clarisse?”

 _What the fuck?_ Wasn’t the note hiding under her geometry book supposed to hide itself from her mind? Clarisse turned to her friend, completely finished fishing for her English book as she held it tightly in her arms. “Hm?” She hummed, arching an eyebrow over at her. “What did you say?”

“I think you’re thinking about it~” Silena grinned.

“You may be a beauty guru, but you’re not a love doctor. Hush with your smug voice.” Clarisse barked, turning and grabbing the note from its hiding spot. “Take it. I don’t want it. Do what you want with it. I don’t need this kind of fucking distraction.”

She shoved the note onto Silena without a sign of approval from her, like she needed one anyway, and she closed her locker shut with a slam, turning on her heel and walking off toward her English class without another word.

* * *

English class was always a bitch, Clarisse had decided that from Day One of coming to it. Well, it was, ever since she discovered that Jackson and his weird brother were in her class. She tried ignoring them, which was easy as fuck because she simply headed toward the back of the room and took her seat.

English class also sucked super badly, since Jackson happened to sit right in front of her. Of course, that was when they actually sat in their assigned seats, which happened to be today since the substitute wasn’t here (shocker). Clarisse didn’t even want to know where their teacher had been for six months -- she could hear Annabeth Chase talking about her maternity leave -- and apparently she had returned after having her baby in the winter. Clarisse didn’t really care at the time and she certainly didn't care now.

But, as Jackson took a smug seat in front of her, she kicked the back of his chair. “Do ya miss sitting next to me, huh?” She muttered to him and he laughed, turning back to face her.

“Kick my chair again and you’re dead meat, La Rue.”

She laughed, rolled her eyes and sank down in her chair. “Ooh, you’re funny. I’d love to see you try. But, who was the one that made it on the wrestling team? Didn’t you? Oh wait.”

Jackson sneered, mocking her and rolling his eyes before turning back to face the front, leaning forward to talk to that blond chick, Annabeth. Whatever. Clarisse was just happy that she got to rub it in his face that she made the team and he didn’t. She looked up at the board, drowning out the teacher as she talked about where she had been and what she had been doing with her kid. Clarisse didn’t really care. She wanted to kick Jackson’s seat again, to be honest.

There was the familiar urge to do it again and she wore a smirk on her face, but there was also a foreign feeling that rose up into her chest and she removed her foot from the back of Jackson’s chair to investigate what it was that had stopped her from kicking the kid's chair once more. It felt like someone was watching her. It felt weird. Normally, she was used to people watching her, people did it all the time whenever they went to wrestling matches (not to mention, the guys from the team and opposite teams looked at her anyway, some jealous, some totally soaking her body up in their minds, both were gross). So why was that a weird feeling?

She glanced around the room and found that weird other Jackson kid, Percy’s half brother or whatever the fuck he was, turned at an angle in his seat. Weird. He normally was super absorbed in whatever the fuck the teacher was saying, but not that Clarisse ever noticed that. He sat near the front of the room, but it was clear that he was turned in his seat, like he had been looking back at the back of the room. Or, maybe that was just Clarisse being paranoid, since his body was turned toward some other chick that was right next to him.

She rolled her eyes. She was being ridiculous. Jackson and Other Jackson are dumb, and Other Jackson certainly couldn’t be that admirer. There wasn't any way. Jackson wouldn't let Other Jackson even do that in the first place. Maybe she was going crazy? Why did it feel like he was the one that did it? Clarisse shook her head slightly, ducking her head and closing her eyes. _This is crazy_. Maybe, she hoped, that it would be someone on the team and then she could just forget it happened and moved on with her life.

Because she didn’t date boys at her school.

* * *

Clarisse was currently ignoring the black-haired girl and how she was talking about the water lilies like the admirer bought her a diamond ring. “Seriously, it’s not that bad,” Silena smiled over at her, her hands curled around her pink steering wheel. Leave it to Silena to decorate her wheel and seats with pink. Her car was even a pink Bug, and Clarisse remembered how she felt so crazy stepping into it the first few times after Silena had purchased the car. Now, well, she had gotten over that quickly (but it still wouldn’t ever beat her white and black Mustang) because of how long she and the other girl had been friends. "It's not really that bad, I don't know what's wrong with it. I thought it was cute!"

Clarisse ignored her and continued starting at the pink, fluffy car mat her feet were currently on.

The pink Bug, the pink everything just screamed Silena. That was how she liked it. Clarisse had gotten used to it.

“Clarisse?” Silena asked and Clarisse lazily peeked over at her, placing her feet up on the dashboard instead. “Put your long legs down.”

“For the last time, they aren’t long, you’re just short.” Clarisse teased half-heartedly, keeping her legs up. She was tired, which was unusual after such a long and boring day of school. She was usually ready to go and ready to be energized by her afterschool work out, but then again she didn’t usually get flowers and a note from a ‘romantic’ admirer.

The brunette put her feet down due to a non-threatening glare (Clarisse didn't want to argue with her) and with a sigh, but she didn’t straighten her posture. She instead sunk down into her chair, pulling her knees onto the seat and pulled them to her chest as best as she could as she glanced out the window. Silena turned the radio down, which was currently blasting some song about Black Magic and putting a spell on a boy to get him to like the girl (Clarisse had no idea) and the beauty girl looked over at her friend. “Okay. That’s a sight I haven’t seen since you accidentally broke my leg.”

“I didn’t know I was gonna land on you!” Clarisse suddenly shouted, looking over at the laughing girl. “I didn’t mean to and you know that!”

“I know, I know. I’ve known that it was an accident,” she giggled, “but really. What’s bothering you? Why are you so upset?”

Clarisse groaned, shifting in the seat and trying to get comfortable. “You know what’s bothering me. I hate this. Why did it have to happen to me? Why couldn’t it happen to like, fuckin’, I dunno, Nico di Angelo or something? Why me? I’m obviously not too happy about it. They should lay off, I could probably crush them.”

Silena widened her eyes, a motion Clarisse found endearing since it made her fake lashes be extra wide and prettier on her. “Clarisse! They clearly like you!”

Another groan from the brunette. “Yes! I get that! But why? I’m clearly not the romantic type!” She mimicked Silena’s actions and widened her eyes, and maybe, just for a split second pretended she had long, fake lashes on just like Silena did. Though, those things were a bitch to put on and no offense, but she didn’t have time for doing that shit. “They should just get over it and move on.”

“They don’t know that. Well, I’m sure that they know that you’re a hard-ass, and not romantic, but maybe they don’t care! I’m sure they still like you. Maybe they’ll leave you another present on Monday!” Silena cheered, continuing to drive to her house. Right, she was sleeping over at the Beauregard house. And she forgot her phone charger. Great, whatever. She’ll just have to do without it. “What do you think they’ll get you next?”

“Ugh, hopefully nothing. Those flowers were so embarrassing. You threw them away, right?” Clarisse asked. “Along with the note? Tell me you threw them away.”

Silena rolled her eyes. “Why would I do that? I keep everything, you know. Well, everything that’s cute and useable," she giggled, "I even have the first ticket from the movie Charlie and I went to go see! And that was two years ago!”

“Ew.” There was a teasing tone in Clarisse's voice and Silena picked up on that, but still placed an equally teasing punch to her friend's shoulder. "Alright, alright, I deserved that one." Clarisse said, rubbing her wounded shoulder even though it didn't hurt that badly, "you and Beck are really cute together."

"Thank you." There was a white, straight smile that appeared from under pink lips and Clarisse sighed once more. God, her lungs were going to fucking collapse, or something. Can lungs even do that? She'll have to ask that Solace kid in Health Monday morning if they could, since it might happen to her if she keeps sighing. "And I'm sure you'd make a cute couple with whoever sent you those flowers!"

"Water lilies, Silena. They're not flowers. They're like, herbs or something. Dunno. Heard Katie Gardner talking about them earlier in the week, and you know how she is with flowers." Clarisse grumbled, rolling her eyes when she saw Silena's face twist up into confusion. "I dunno, Google it." There was a slight smile that came from the other girl and Clarisse suddenly arched an eyebrow, finally catching on to Silena's accusations (instead of fucking worrying about stupid flowers) and she groaned. "And no! I would not make a 'cute couple' with whoever gave me the stupid lilies! Because it's not happening! Now when we get home, I want you to throw them away, or I will."

Silena sighed, clutching onto the wheel. "And what about the note?"

"I dunno," Clarisse smirked, "why don't we try burning it?"

* * *

After successfully burning the note and throwing away the flowers (Silena complained the whole time and her mother was totally confused but didn't ask since she knew better) Clarisse and Silena headed back upstairs to the girl's bedroom. "Why did we burn the note in the grill? My dad's gonna come back and wonder why there's ash in there."

"Tell him I had to take care of some business, and that I'm sure he'd rather me do it in his grill than in his fancy lookin yard." Clarisse mumbled as she flopped down onto the girl's majorly pink bed. "Also, your mom didn't even question us which I think is hilarious."

"She's learned." Silena took a seat next to her and pulled the brunette into a hug, despite Clarisse's attempts to push away and the complaints Silena got from her. "Hey, come on now. Did burning the note make you feel any better?"

"Yes," came the automatic reply when Clarisse accepted the hug and went limp into her arms, hiding her face in the crook of the other girl's neck like she had done millions of times before. Silena sighed like she didn't really believe her but who was Clarisse to know? She felt better, honestly, now that there was no physical trace of the note (besides the ashes in Silena's dad's grill, _whoops_ ) and so why didn't Silena believe her? The flowers were gone. Out of her mind. The note was gone, erased from history and Clarisse was fine. The admirer didn't matter to her. As long as she felt fine, she didn't care. "The admirer isn't real."

"What? Not real? Of course they're real." Silena arched an eyebrow. "What makes you think that they aren't?"

"Because they supposedly like me."

"So you're thinking they're not real because they like you?" Silena asked. Clarisse paused for a moment, because had she really just admitted that? Did she want people to like her? No, no, of course not. This was crazy.

But there was nothing from stopping her mouth from continuing on rambling out, "well yeah, not many people like me. So why should a secret admirer like me?"

"Chris liked you."

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Oh god," she said, looking off to the side at all the pillows Silena had: pink pillows, lace and ruffled pillows, black and white pillows, cheetah print... "Thanks for bringing me back to, what, eighth grade? Freshman year?"

Silena giggled. "Whatever. Charlie and I like you."

Clarisse scoffed, hiding her eyes from all the fluffiness Silena's room had. "Ohh. Wow. Thanks. So what is that? Two people? Three if you count my ex-boyfriend?"

Silena smiled, rubbing Clarisse's back, "quality, not quantity, my dear."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. All I'm saying is, what if it's a prank?" Clarisse grumbled, rolling her eyes and ignoring how Silena started to ramble on about how it _couldn't be a prank, you'd know_ and _you'd kick their ass!_ and Clarisse was grateful for the support, but she still had a funny feeling in her stomach. She couldn't help but think of how Other Jackson was turned around in his seat like that, like he was more focused on something else instead of the teacher and that _rarely_ happened. From what Clarisse knew, that kid was always willing to learn, always wanting to know more, yadda yadda yadda. Sounded boring to Clarisse. So why was she suddenly thinking about him now?

Silena's voice (thankfully) shoved her out of her thought process and back down to Earth for the umptheenth time that day. Once during the morning, five times during classes before lunch (she apparently was counting) and at lunch, three. And, once in the car, and apparently, now, too. "Clarisse? Are you sure you're okay? You've been spacing out a lot today."

Clarisse sighed, still hiding her face like a child in her mother's arms. "Yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine, it's just... Weird. It's a weird feeling. I'm gonna go out for a run, do you wanna come with me?" she asked, even though she was exhausted from the school day. Maybe a run would be good for her. Maybe it would help clear up her thoughts and get them out of her head. Her father was a military general, so she'd grown up with that kind of stuff. Running happened to take away all of the bad things she thought of. She'd snuck out multiple times while her parents were fighting during the night anyway, and she'd always forget after a few minutes. So why couldn't a run get rid of gaining the information that you have a secret admirer?

"No harm in trying," Silena agreed like she was reading Clarisse's mind. _No kidding. Let's go._

* * *

The minute Clarisse stepped out into the spring air, she felt a bit better. Silena was behind her, geared up in her running outfit and following the brunette closely. She was still impressed that Silena was able to keep up with her, but then again, she knew that Silena took dance and volleyball throughout her life, so Clarisse should've expected her to keep up. Silena gave her a quick smile before running ahead of her, and the brunette girl laughed. “Always trying to outdo me, huh?”

“I’d never be able to outdo a girl who runs and lifts weights for a living!” Silena giggled, sighing a bit and slowing down her pace. “Let’s go to the gas station I live by and get a drink or something!”

Clarisse laughed again and nodded her head, agreeing to her request. “Alright, alright, fine,” she said, catching up with her to walk at her side. “But only a water for me, yeah? I mean, we’re getting Chinese soon anyway, right?”

Silena nodded, smiling a bit as she walked, “well of course we are, it’s Friday. Friday is Chinese food day whenever we’re at my house. Which, now that I think about it, doesn’t make any sense but it’s tradition, technically.”

Clarisse continued walking on in silence, letting Silena go on about Charlie and things like that. She felt bad for starting to tune her out, but she tried to at least half-listen so she could say that she heard everything. She didn’t really know why, but going to the gas station was starting to feel like a bad idea, just as soon as she stepped onto the pavement of the convenience shop. There were people around, filling their tanks up with gasoline and walking inside to go pay or go stack up on food, just ordinary things with ordinary people, but with a small little comment from Silena about how she _thinks that’s Percy’s car in the parking lot right there_ since she could tell from the _small logo of their school’s swim team on the back windshield_ and suddenly Clarisse definitely _knew_ it was a bad idea to go inside.

Choking out a small, “lame,” as some sort of input, Clarisse continued to walk along, trying not to signal to Silena in any way that she was nervous. There was a strange feeling walking into the store, a strange dreading feeling that little miss La Rue never felt if anything. She rarely felt dread walking into such a place, let alone a completely harmless gas station. But with Silena opening up the door and offering Clarisse to go first, the brunette just decided to barge on in to see what the fuck that dreading feeling was really all about.

And, almost like in a lame, cliché movie that Silena had memorized the words to, Clarisse barged into none other than Other Jackson. The same six-foot-three, half-blind, smart and awkward giant, who happened to be displaying odd behaviour in English that day. But, without skipping a beat, she managed to hiss out, “what, are you blind or something?” before her throat closed up. She stared up at him, noticing how his… dreadlocks? What the fuck were those things anyway? Whatever. She didn’t care if his stupid dreadlocks were the things covering his eyes, but Clarisse could feel her hands go numb anyway because his eyes were fucking _hidden_. He was bowing his head to hide from her.

“Sorry.” His voice was lighter and different than what she expected. He was something different than she expected, really. She was expecting him or someone, God, _someone_ to act fucking crazy since that’s what she was used to. Where was Jackson? _Bring it on, fish boy_.

Percy stepped out from behind his brother (or whatever the fuck he was to him) to mutter out how, _yeah, he is, but only half so fuck off_ , but Clarisse was too busy ignoring the fact that she saw his head bow whenever she talked to him. Normally he wasn’t like that. He was a bit skittish around her, everyone was, really, but bowing his head? Sure, he had done something wrong, well, she did, but whatever -- and it wasn’t like bumping into him hurt -- but he should’ve been used to her outbursts. They had PE together, for God’s sake. Clarisse walked off with a roll of her eyes and a grunt, knocking into Percy’s shoulder as she did so.

Silena caught up to her and apologized for not checking for people when she opened the door, only Clarisse just rolled her eyes once more. “Hey, don’t worry about it, I didn’t check either. I guess Jackson was the one paying while the other one was just standing around like he always does. Come on, let’s get a drink and just… Just go home, yeah?”

She couldn’t believe she had just mentally analyzed the shit out of Other Jackson’s behaviour. It was disturbing to her, why she had cared so fucking much when all she should’ve done was walk off. She bumped into him, and he bowed his head like he did something really fucking wrong. Actually, the more she thought about it, maybe he did. That wasn’t what he normally did, or what she expected him to do. So that was wrong.

Silena smiled, pulling Clarisse out of her trance, “yeah, come on! Let’s get a drink. It’s on me, of course.”

* * *

Clarisse sat quietly on the girl’s duvet comforter, munching away at her shrimp lo mein she had ordered. Silena was sitting equally as silent, watching the tv but Clarisse could tell she wasn’t absorbing any of what was going on. Probably because she had seen the show, the episode really, before, maybe for the fact that she was going to say Clarisse’s name. Clarisse should’ve expected it whenever Silena suggested that they watch some television show about a Next Top Model, which was Silena’s favorite show growing up, and not the new season of Pretty Little Liars.

“Clarisse, at the gas station,” she continued on and Clarisse ignored her a bit more, not ready to have this conversation just yet. “Clarisse…”

“What?” The brunette snapped, dropping her chopsticks into her bowl. “What is possibly so important about that freaking gas station, Silena?” Silena huffed, moving her food and herself over to the side that Clarisse was currently sitting on. She kept her food in her lap as she wrapped an arm around the taller girl’s shoulders. “Oh god, what are you doing?”

Silena paused, her mouth open slightly ajar, as if she were thinking of her words carefully. “I’m just saying… But, maybe correct me if I’m wrong -- well, you’ll correct me anyway, so _don’t_ correct me if I’m wrong -- but did I see… something--”

“Oh my god, no! You are not doing this to me like you are with your eyepatch friend and his blond friend! There was not a fucking moment! You didn’t see anything!” Clarisse hissed, turning toward her with narrow eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she was super close to folding her arms over her chest when her friend’s words caught up to her. _Don’t correct me if I’m wrong_. _Shit_. “Don’t you fucking dare, Silena, that means nothing! I just bumped into him. Whatever! No big deal!”

Silena sighed, “I wasn’t talking about you! Silly!” She then giggled and took a bite of her broccoli, an obvious smug smile on her face. Clarisse’s face, on the other hand, started to burn. She was so sure Silena was going to say something about her, but instead she didn’t.

She said she saw something about _him_.

Clarisse shook her head, trying not to let Silena get to her head. She hadn’t seen how Other Jackson looked at her whenever she was too busy running into him, but she also hadn’t figured that Silena did manage to see it. It wouldn’t have surprised her, really.

What the girl said next, though, almost made Clarisse drop her shrimp lo mein, “do you think he’s the admirer?”

It did, though, not take more than a quick second for Clarisse to laugh, and mutter out, “good fucking one. Yeah, see, I have no idea how he looked at me, but I know for one hundred percent certainty, Other Jackson is not the fucking admirer. Jackson wouldn’t dare to let that happen, for one.” She glanced at Silena, who looked almost _offended_. “Come on, Silena. Give it up and just watch Tyra Banks work her stuff.”

A huff came from the other girl and she bit down dramatically on her piece of beef she had picked up.

* * *

Monday morning came unpleasantly quick and Clarisse was not in a good mood. At all. She had gotten calls from Silena over the weekend (more theories than there were stars in the sky) and calls from Beckendorf about how he was laughing because Silena was really interested in her love life (Clarisse had to give back the _witty_ retort of _shut the fuck up_ ). She had also decided that her half brother, Frank, snored really loudly and woke her up for most of the night. She contemplated shoving Kleenexes up his nose, but Silena had interrupted her with a text of, _**that’ll kill him!**_ to which she replied _**as if, he could breathe through his mouth if he so pleased**_. Either way, Frank had a nice sleep and a nice stay for the weekend and Clarisse really wanted to kill someone by Monday morning.

Her period had also started that morning, too, which was really fucking great. She got ready like she normally did, however, and ignored any texts from Silena involving that maybe, just maybe Other Jackson was the admirer. Clarisse might not have been like, rocket-scientist fucking smart, but she wasn’t that fucking dumb either. There was no way. And Clarisse made sure to tell Silena that. Multiple times.

Even as she entered the pink Bug that had been parked out in front of her house for ten minutes. Even as she was handed a little good morning strawberry frappe from Starbucks. Even as she sipped on the damn drink (but, maybe that was just because she liked annoying her with the fact that Other Jackson is related to Jackson, and there wasn’t any way a secret admirer would happen). Though, she could tell Silena abruptly and subserviently agreed to whatever Clarisse was saying.

But that didn’t stop her from saying it, over and over again. She even mentioned it as she finished her drink on her way to her locker, where she saw another little note stuck onto there, along with Clarisse’s favorite candy: kit-kats. She looked at Silena, who arched an eyebrow at the other girl.

“You were saying?” Silena asked politely, walking over to her locker. “Seems you’ve got another admirer! Or, maybe it’s the same one.” she said, grabbing onto the note, flipping it open. “It says, ‘sorry for bumping into you’ in the same messy handwriting as before.”

Clarisse grabbed the note from the smaller girl and analyzed it, analyzed it like Annabeth Chase would with blueprints. Everything seemed the same, it still looked like it was written like a blind four year old, but nonetheless, it was the same handwriting. Which meant it was the same person. “‘Sorry for bumping into you’.” she grumbled, looking at Silena. “Get that smug look off of your face. This sucks.” she opened her locker, grabbing her English book. She contemplated just throwing the note in there with the candy, but she snuck the candy into her bookbag and held onto the note with a death grip.

Silena sighed. “Just go get him.”

Clarisse rolled her eyes, closing her locker door with a slam as she walked off to her English class. She wasn’t going admit to anyone that she stomped the whole way there, either.

* * *

“Jackson!” Clarisse knew as soon as she said it when she walked in the classroom that Percy would be the asshole to look up. “No, not _you_ , idiot! The other one!” Her eyes zoned out onto Jackson #2, focusing on him instead. “ _Him_.”

She watched as the boy, who she was currently staring down like an eagle, sunk down in his seat, but she didn’t care as she made a beeline toward him, slapping the note down on the desk a little harder than she intended.

“What the fuck is this?” she growled, ignoring the teacher’s complaint about _no swear words, please, Clarisse_. “I have a few words to say to you. Come on.” Other Jackson stood up faster than she expected -- he was just so full of surprises, wasn’t he? Clarisse wasn’t amused -- and she knew this wouldn’t take long as she grabbed the note and stomped her way out of the classroom. She got there early to class, anyway.

She looked over her shoulder to see that he was still following behind her and she walked all the way to the staircase by the classroom, standing out more toward the exit doors than the stairs.

“What the fuck is this?” she repeated her sentence, turning around sharply and held out her hand which held the note. “Why the fuck are you suddenly giving me love letters and presents? This isn’t my birthday and it surely ain’t the fuckin Love Day, so why are you doing this?”

She watched him as he blinked before smiling shyly and hiding his face. “I like you.”

“Well, yeah, you big dummy, I can clearly see that!” Clarisse whispered harshly, stepping closer to him to shove the note onto his chest. “Why are you doing it? Is it a prank? Is someone _paying_ you to do this?”

Other Jackson took a step back as Clarisse stepped forward even more, “n-no, no one’s paying m--”

“Is _Jackson_ paying you?” she hissed and he shook his head, bumping up against the brick wall behind him.

“Brother’s not paying me…”

“Then what are you doing?” she asked and he looked at her, full eye-to-eye contact and Clarisse paused, seemingly in a trance at how soft and blue and perfect those eyes were, only having one slight imperfection to them: one side being paler and more milkier in color than the other. Suddenly, Jackson’s own words came into her head and she cringed: _yeah, he is, but only half so fuck off_. He was half-blind. Clarisse knew that, vaguely, if anything, but if anyone wrote like a half-blind four year old, it was him. She never cared enough to make it an important factor. Sure, she might’ve done it subconsciously, when she felt like he was staring at her, or whenever they ran into the gas station, but still. She just never felt like she needed to officially know who the person was.

And now that she did, she didn’t know what to do.

“No one is paying me,” he continued, pulling her out of her own thoughts, what a bastard, “because I didn’t have to have anyone pay me. I like you, Clarisse.”

It felt weird hearing him say her name but it was strangely… nice. Ugh. Oh no. She’s starting to sound like Silena.

“But, uh…” he ducked his head again before looking back at her, “something tells me you don’t like me very much.”

Clarisse rolled her eyes. “Shut up, just… Never mind. I--”

“I do really like you.”

Before she could stop herself, her mouth kept moving and she muttered out, “why do you like me?” It was the question of the year, it seemed like to her, why did he like her? Why did anyone like her? She didn’t really radiate _fall in love with me!_ so why the fuck was he doing this?

“Because I… I really don’t know,” he paused and she snorted, mumbling out _well that’s romantic_ under her breath and he ducked his head again. “I think you’re really pretty and strong. Very strong and tough. And pretty. Yeah.” There was a quick second before he gestured to her bag, which she didn’t even seem to realize she forgot to set down, “also, I like kit-kats too.”

She actually giggled, oh God, she _giggled_ , she actually let that sound come out of her mouth and it sounded like the weirdest thing but she watched as Other Jackson -- no, Tyson -- smiled. It wasn’t really a rare sight (he seemed to smile all the fucking time) but she saw the corners of his eyes crinkled up and his straight, white teeth were almost as white as Silena’s, and they were both cute fucking things that Clarisse hadn’t ever noticed before. “So, how did you find out I like kit-kats anyway?”

“Your friend,” Tyson answered back quickly, with a smile and Clarisse felt those nasty little butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. “She kinda helped me figure out which locker was yours, too. Well, really, she helped me with kinda everything...” Clarisse paused as he did, his eyes widening in surprise. “But, that was supposed to stay secret…!” That smug little girl played her all along! And she fell for it!

“She did what?” Clarisse arched an eyebrow. “She helped you? And she didn’t tell me?”

“I-I didn’t want her to.” Tyson looked at her and sighed a bit, “since you know, I figured that would be embarrassing.”

“Oh, right, much more embarrassing than taping flowers and candy on my locker…” Clarisse trailed off and it fell silent between the two as the bell rang. She waited until the annoying ringing was over and through with before looking at him. “Well, better go to the class we’re late for, hmm?” She asked before starting to walk off, and he grabbed onto her arm. She turned back, eyes widened and full of ice and he quickly, _smartly_ , retracted his arm back.

“Sorry, um… One more thing?” he asked, his gaze hopeful. She exhaled through her nose, pinching it afterwards.

“What?”

“Did you like them? The gifts? The notes? Silena was worried you’d think they’d be too cheesy and I really tried, I just couldn’t think of anything and--”

“Breathe, weirdo.” Clarisse interrupted him and sighed once more, looking away for a moment. Did she actually like them? Not really, since it was weird and she didn’t know what to think about it, but she did feel a little bad for burning the first note. “Yes, I liked them.” she lied, but something in her stomach made her feel like maybe, just maybe, she did like them now that she knew they came from him.

“Okay, cool… Let’s get back to class, yeah?” He flashed her another genuine smile, and she couldn’t help but look at it and admire it, and fuck.

That made Clarisse feel weird, but at the same time, very bubbly and sorta… like how she pictured Silena felt all day, every day. Because, maybe she didn’t date boys at her school, but that didn’t mean secretly falling for one. Who knew? Maybe soon he’d make an exception.

And, right then and there, she knew she was automatically screwed.

**Author's Note:**

> also yeah i ship silena/clarisse a lot along with chris/clarisse and beckendorf/silena so this was kiNDA WEIRD so sorry but it happened  
> blame the fucking writer for the SoM screenplay for clarisse saying "tyson let go of my hand" because FUCK YOU i hate u. for many reasons. but this is one of them. screw u writer.  
> i also know 0 things of wrestling but could you imagine wrestler!clarisse like yaas  
> also lmao "other jackson" sorry


End file.
